Beach Life

The beach at La Manzanilla is a destination for gringos in the winter and for Mexicans in the summer.  This is not an upscale resort and the gringo visitors mostly come for a respite from their busy lives. They want to relax, to slow down, to experience their vision of a sleepy tropical village on the Pacific Ocean. One gringa travel writer wrote about returning to “…this dusty little Mexican fishing village, a hushed-up spot that's still off the clock and, for a while yet, off the tourist track…to settle back in my beachside chair and stare for hours at the mini-curl of surf, ice cubes melting in my Cuba Libre, skin glowing, mind blank, system on zero” (link).

Fishermen leaving the beach at La Manzanilla

The Crocodile Farm

According to the Ramsar Convention*, Bahía Tenacatita is one of the five most important bays on the Pacific Coast of Mexico. Estero La Manzanilla, an estuary on the east side of the bay, supports a mangrove forest in good condition. It is one of three estuaries on the coast with a large population of American crocodiles. During our stay in La Manzanilla, we often walked down a dirt road by the estuary to the restaurants on the beach. A sign said the area was a crocodile farm (cocodrilario) and a sagging chain-link fence was all that separated pedestrians from large crocodiles basking in the sunshine.

Be careful. Crocodiles in this area. Do not swim. Do not feed the crocodiles. Do not walk your pets. Do not fish. 

La Manzanilla

La Manzanilla is a small village on the Pacific Coast north of Manzanillo in the state of Jalisco. We visited La Manzanilla while we were staying in Barra de Navidad and decided that we would return and stay for a month. There are no banks in the village and the only grocery stores are small tiendas. We drove 14 km (9 mi) south to Melaque, the largest community on the coast between Puerto Vallarta and Manzanillo, to do most of our shopping. 

Entrance to La Manzanilla

La Manzanilla’s main attractions are the beach, water sports (fishing, swimming, surfing, kayaking), RV camping, La Catalina Natural Language School (link) and crocodile reserve (hence the statue on the way into town). The place is not well known among gringos, but is a popular weekend and holiday destination with Mexicans.